Drawing on seventy-four interviews, this article analyzes the rising importance since the mid-2000s of large marine protected areas (MPAs) as a policy for managing ocean conservation. Governments have initiated eighteen large MPAs (over 200,000 km2) since 2006, reflecting the emergence of a new large MPA norm in marine conservation. This norm, we argue, emerged because of the success of a few transnational nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in identifying politically feasible large MPAs, and then forming ad hoc domestic coalitions to lobby for them. This explanation is in contrast to most of the literature on how and why norms diffuse internationally, as well as existing explanations for the rise of large MPAs, both of which emphasize the importance of cohesive coalitions of transnational NGOs lobbying in multilateral venues. This bottom-up, international norm diffusion strategy has made large MPAs a viable policy option, one national jurisdiction at a time. For instance, this strategy was a critical element in convincing the UK to create the Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve (835,000 km2) in 2015. Given the politics underlying the formation of large MPAs, where political gains have been high, and corporate and societal resistance relatively low, the creation of more large MPAs would seem likely, as occurred in 2016 when the UK announced it would designate three more large MPAs by 2020, totalling over 1.4 million km2. Growing support for large MPAs as a conservation strategy could also embolden states to establish large MPAs in more politically and economically contested waters, including on the Pacific high seas.

太平洋海洋保育事业中的政治：皮特凯恩岛海洋保护区的教训

关键词：海洋保护地，太平洋，皮特凯恩岛，亚太地区自然保育。
本文利用74次访谈记录，分析了自2005年左右起大型海洋保护地作为海洋保育中一个管理性的政策工具日益凸显的重要性。自2006年以来各国政府已经发起建立了18个大型海洋保护地（总面积超过20万平方公里），反映出在海洋保育事业中一个新的大型海洋保护地规范的兴起。我们认为，这个规范的兴起肇始于一些跨国非政府组织，他们首先成功地识别出政治上可行的大型海洋保护地，然后与国内力量结成独特的同盟，共同为这些大型海洋保护地的建立进行游说。本文跟大多数解释规范为何及如何在国际上扩散的文献以及现有的解释大型海洋保护地如何兴起的文献皆有不同。这些文献都强调了跨国非政府组织结成团结一致的联盟在多边渠道进行游说的重要性。而（本文中）这个自下而上的国际规范扩散策略则是逐次逐个在各国分别发挥作用，使大型海洋保护地在各国成为可行的政策选项。例如，这个策略对于英国在2015年创立皮特凯恩岛海洋保护区（83万5千平方公里）起到了关键作用。鉴于建立大型海洋保护地过程的政治特色——其中政治收益总是较高，而企业和社会反对程度则相对比较低——创建更多大型海洋保护地似乎具有很大的可能性，正如英国的情况所示，2016年英国宣布至2020年它会指定面积超过140万平方公里的三个更大型的海洋保护地。对大型海洋保护地作为海洋保育战略的日益增长的支持也会鼓励政府在包括太平洋公海在内的政治和经济上更有争议性的水域建立大型海洋保护地。
Translated from English by Li Guo